Geetika suicide: Aruna Chaddha bail plea in court

New Delhi: The bail plea of MDLR executive Aruna Chaddha in connection with the Geetika Sharma suicide case will come up for hearing at a Delhi court on Friday. In her August 4 suicide note, the 23-year-old former air-hostess had said that she was ending her life due to "harassment" by Chaddha and former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda.

Earlier, Chaddha's bail was rejected on September 7 saying the probe is at an initial stage. She again moved an appeal in the Delhi High Court on Thursday. Chaddha has sought bail on the ground that she is a single parent and has a seven-year-old daughter and old parents to look after. The appeal will be heard by Justice Manmohan.

Geetika Sharma in her suicide note had said that she was ending her life due to harassment by Chaddha and former Haryana minister Kanda.

Kanda was on Thursday denied bail by the District and Additional Sessions court. "The present case shows direct allegation against Kanda and Aruna Chadha (his employee and co-accused) who were pressurising the victim woman again and again right from 2010 when she resigned from the job and joined Emirates Airlines in Dubai," said the District and Additional Sessions Judge SK Sarvaria while denying bail to Kanda.

"The two suicide notes dated August 4 and May 4 prima facie show that victim on account of pressure from Kanda and Chadha wanted to commit suicide," the judge said.

The court said that further probe was needed in the case in view of a police report that the vicitm was pregnant in March this year.

"In the police file, there is report of a private gynaecologist which shows applicant/accused and victim had visited the clinic on March 9, 2012 and the victim woman was pregnant. This may be one of the cause for her first suicide note dated May 4," the judge said.

"The postmortem report collected during investigation by the IO shows one strange thing that the deceased/victim woman was habituated to sexual intercourse, therefore, the matter requires investigation whether the victim declined to join the services with the accused or wasbeing pressurised to join it for the purpose of her sexual abuse or not," he added.

Kanda's counsel Ramesh Gupta had earlier contended that there was no evidence that Geetika was pregnant with Kanda's child.

The former Haryana minister's bail plea was vehemently opposed by Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan saying he was an influential person and a sitting Haryana MLA and could tamper with evidence and influence public witness if released on bail.

Kanda was arrested on August 18 after he had surrendered before the police, 13 days after Geetika was found dead in her Ashok Vihar house in North West Delhi.